Page 9 of In the Mouth of the Wolf (Of Wolves and Kings #1)

9

NOLAN

“T hat’ll be $456.79.”

I tapped my card against the chip reader and grinned at the cashier. I hadn’t stopped grinning since I’d gotten the call from Cam.

She eyed the groceries amused. “Stocking up?”

“Yeah, you never know in a storm like this,” I chuckled. I started packing everything carefully, making sure to put the meat in different bags than the Oreos and Sour Patch Kids.

After loading everything in the trunk, I set out for Cam’s cabin. On a good day, it took two hours to get there from Maiingan Hollow, but in a storm like this? I’d be lucky to make it by dawn.

I cracked open one of the energy drinks I’d just bought and turned the volume on the stereo way up, blasting my road trip playlist.

An omega . I was still reeling from the news. Linden’s daughter was an omega – unbonded from the sound of it, and going through her first heat. And we were the lucky alphas to help her out.

Well, not in the way I wanted to. My cock was already hard and I willed it to calm down.

I didn’t even know what she looked like yet, for Moon’s sake. Or if she was cool, or even wanted any of us. And we certainly weren’t going to take advantage of her just for the experience.

But if we came out the other end of this and she did decide to bond with our pack... It had seemed like an impossible dream to even consider that we’d have an omega of our own someday. Maiingan Hollow was a special enclave just for shifters, and from what I’d gathered talking to the village heads of similar communities, omegas had disappeared everywhere. Just like our ability to shift into our inner wolves, it was a vital part of our biology and identity that we’d lost in the past century.

We could survive without shifting and without omegas, but those two experiences were supposedly the greatest joys in an alpha’s life. I felt like I’d been cheated out of my true purpose, no matter how fulfilling my job as mayor was. My bed was empty and at night, my chest ached, a deep longing punctuating every moment I was alone.

But that could soon change. If my pack did this right, we could have our very own omega.

My house was old and had been built by the alpha who had first founded our town. The nest room had been converted to a storage closet ever since I’d moved in, and I couldn’t wait to finally use it for its intended purpose.

But in my rush to leave, I didn’t even think to clear it out at all. We could set up a temporary nest in my room until we redecorated, since that room was the warmest. I didn’t mind sleeping in one of the guest bedrooms or even the couch until then.

I laughed, surprised at how far ahead of myself I was getting. Camden had the biggest house, with room not just for a nest but the whole pack. It made way more sense for us all to move into his place.

Maybe this would finally bring Elias back home, too. There was no way he’d be able to handle living in Chicago if he had an omega back up here.

I upped the speed on my windshield wipers and groaned to myself. The roads were worse than I had thought, and I fought back my instinct to rush. If I went too fast and spun out, I’d get there even later.

Slow and steady – pretty much the opposite mantra of an alpha shifter, but it would have to be mine tonight if I wanted to meet her.

I sang along to “Back in Black” by AC/DC, wondering what kind of music she liked. I’d love to make a playlist for her, something we could listen to together.

Visibility was piss poor, but I knew these roads like the back of my hand. I chugged the rest of my energy drink, rolled down my window, and howled into the snowy abyss .